2007 - My Timesheet in PWA

[Adrian]

Hello,

I have been playing with Timesheets in PWA and cannot find how to apply
filters to the timesheet information. Can anyone advise. The timesheet
functionality was great in 2003, but in 2007 it seems to have taken a
backward step as a lot of functionality appears to have been removed.

It also seems that its now a lot more complex and time consuming to complete
timesheets in 2007, so am I missing something. I thought newer product
versions were supposed to make it easier to do things not harder !

Can anyone advise how I can filter information in my Timesheets please? .

Thanks.

Jeff

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Jeff --

Yes, the filtering capability is gone from both the My Tasks and My
Timesheets page. And yes, the time reporting system is a lot more complex.
Blame this on Microsoft's customers who want new features and functionality,
and then Microsoft delivers it!

What is the length of your timesheet periods? If you are using weekly time
periods, that makes things a little simpler. Hope this helps.

 

[Adrian]

Hi Dale,

Thanks for your reply. We are using weekly timesheets (but then we were in
2003) but I don't really see how this helps. How do I filter tasks that are
newly assigned for example or by a specific project ?

How else can I view my timesheet tasks in this way. Its seems uttelry
ridiculous that this sort of functionality has been removed. My Director
reviewed this with me last week and we are horified by the changes. He's
even considering not bothering with an upgrade to 2007 and looking at other
PM products !! This can't be good news for Microsoft ....

Of course it always possible that I have missed something and I'm willing to
give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt but I'm frankly a bit shocked about
the changes in 2007 from a Timesheet perspective...

Regards

Jeff

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Jeff --

I don't work for Microsoft and am a volunteer answering questions in this
newsgroup, so don't blame the messenger. Sorry for the bad news. Believe
me, my sympathy is with you. Right now, folks like you are on the
"bleedging edge" with Project Server 2007. We are all on a learning curve
trying to master the use of all of these new features. If anyone gains
enough knowledge to address your concerns, I would welcome their
suggestions. Hope this helps.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Jeff:

At least some of your disappointment with the Project Server time sheet
system is over-expectation.<g> Project Server's strong points continue to be
scheduling, team collaboration support, portfolio intelligence and resource
management. The new time sheet constructs in Project Server bring us a mixed
bag of changes from a team of developers whose specialty is not time sheets.

On the plus side, we now have auditable, transactional timesheets that, at
worst, provide a development example as to how to encapsulate time sheet
services in Project Server. You certainly can't call time sheets in Project
Server "feature rich." If you really need feature-rich time sheets, you
should consider one of the fine products with interfaces to Project Server.
If you want the time sheets in Project Server to reflect the correct tasks,
you need to make sure that your schedules are both accurate and up to date.
The system is perhaps a bit too rigid in this regard, but it's still a leap
forward in functionality, flexibility and applicability.

Bottom line: The time sheets make the most sense when your schedules do too.
It's a nightmare for your resources if they don't. There's a lot to get used
to in the new version; good, bad and ugly.